President’s Letter, July 2024

It is hard to believe that it is already July and summer is in full swing. MACDL has been busy advocating for lawyers and clients in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I am pleased to provide you all with several updates on our organization’s efforts to create an effective, accessible, and fun community for new and experienced criminal defense lawyers.

To those of you who helped kick off a strong first-half of the year, thank you. We welcome anyone who wishes to join us in our efforts moving forward. I hope these updates may help inspire some of you to get involved.

Sincerely,

Shira Diner, MACDL President

INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

MEET OUR INTERNS

On June 6th we welcomed an amazing group of summer interns to our small, yet mighty legal community. The MACDL intern program matches MACDL members with law students who are interested in pursuing a career in criminal defense. The interns gain valuable experience and the lawyers who sponsor them help us build the next generation of criminal defense lawyers.

• Ashley Lopez Dishmey, a rising 2L at Massachusetts School of Law, who is placed with Attorney Nora Leovich;
• Cassie Mirasolo, a rising 3L at New England School of Law, who is placed with Attorney Amy Codagnone;
• Julia Tantare, a rising 3L at New England School of Law, who is placed at Miner Siddall, LLP;
• Rachel Modi, a rising 3L at New England School of Law, who is placed at Voyager Law Group;
• Selena Sanchez, a rising 2L at New England School of Law, who is placed at Todd & Weld; and
• Symone Mond, a rising 3L at Suffolk, who is placed at Carney, Gaudet & Carney.

If you are interested in taking on a MACDL intern next summer, please reach out to macdlintern@gmail.com for more information.

EVENTS

AWARDS CEREMONIES

In March and June, we gathered at two awards events to celebrate the hard work and dedication of several of our members. We had many new attendees at both events who were graciously welcomed to the organization by our seasoned members.

During the March event at Carrie Nation the Brownlow Speer Award, presented annually to recognize those defense attorneys whose appellate work exemplifies the highest standards of excellence in service of those accused of crime, was given to Claudia Leis Bolgen. Additionally, the Hines-Burnham Award, given in recognition of exceptional service, skill and innovation in the defense of the accused by an attorney practicing for ten years or less, was presented jointly to Reyna Ramirez and Christine Sunnerberg.

At our June event at The Painted Burro, the Joseph J. Balliro Award, given in recognition of a lifetime dedication and commitment to the rights of the accused, was presented to Rosemary Scapicchio. The Clarence Gideon Award, presented to champions of the noblest principle that all persons shall stand equal before the law was given to Lisa Kavanaugh. The June Event also featured Adrian Walker, Associate Editor of the Boston Globe. He spoke about his cutting edge investigating and reporting on the death of Carol Stuart and the documentary “Murder in Boston: The untold story of the Charles and Carol Stuart shooting.”

EVENTS

OTHER MACDL EVENTS

On March 27, the MACDL executive board joined bar leaders from other bar associations at a bench/bar meeting held at the SJC. Attached is a memo summarizing what we learned and copy of the materials provided.

MACDL was a sponsor of the Mass Bar Associations Annual Dinner Annual Dinner on May 2, at the Westin Boston Seaport District. The event’s keynote speaker was MACDL friend Sean K. Ellis, director of the Exoneree Network of the New England Innocence Project.

COMMITTEE UPDATES

MACDL COMMITTEES

Our committees are the lifeblood of MACDL, serving as the driving force behind our initiatives, projects, and events. Many of our committees are looking for new members and we hope that you will consider one of them. By joining a committee, you will contribute your unique insights and expertise into furthering our mission. This is a fantastic opportunity to make a lasting impact and help us achieve our shared goals. Please feel free to reach out to me or to the committee chairs if you would like to get more involved.

• Community Outreach Committee (Chris Williams and Rafael Feliciano Cumbas)
• Continuing Legal Education and Training Programs Committee (Alyssa Hackett and Mike Tumposky)
• Events Committee (Melissa Ramos and Jennifer Sunderland)
• Federal Practice Committee (Sara Silva and Scott Lauer)
• Lawyers Assistance Strike Force Committee (Eduardo Masferrer and John Swomley)
• Legislative Committee (Aviva Jeruchim and Murat Erkan)
  Membership Committee (Ambar Maceo-Rossi and Melissa Ramos)
• Clemency Committee (Devon Hincapie and Patty DeJuneas)

CLEMENCY COMMITTEE
The Clemency Committee is made up of volunteer lawyers who screen applications from prisoners across Massachusetts seeking pro bono representation to file petitions for commutation, as well as people in the community who are seeking pardons.

To date, the Committee has received scores of applications and screened a large percentage of the applications received. The Committee meets on a periodic basis to vote on the applications screened – ultimately either recommending that counsel be assigned or rejecting the application for failure to meet established criteria.

Since formation, the Committee has also reached out to a number of law firms, to gauge both the interest in becoming pro bono partners and their ability to take on one or more cases. The Committee offers to provide training, sample petitions and other resources for navigating through the clemency system; as well as offering continued availability to assist or confer at any time throughout the process, if determined helpful. McDermott Will & Emery has accepted its first referral.

CLE COMMITTEE
On May 21st, the CLE committee presented a program on the various aspects of handling firearm cases in District and Superior Court. The program, taught by Hayne Barnwell, Josh Raisler Cohn, and Joe Simons, covered discovery issues, motion practice, and trial strategies.

AMICUS COMMITTEE
For years, the MACDL Amicus Committee has been on the forefront of legal change in Massachusetts State Court. The Committee continues its robust contributions to the development of the law by expanding its reach to Federal Court. The committee’s newest member, Sara Silva, will focus on expanding the MACDL amicus committee presence in federal appellate cases. Please see the attached report of the committee’s active projects.

As always, the MACDL Amicus Committee stands ready to assist any criminal defendant seeking to address a question of importance in a state or federal criminal appeal.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH COMMITTEE
The MACDL Community Outreach Committee is partnering with Healthcare for the Homeless to support healthcare outreach workers at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melena Cass Boulevard (Mass and Cass), where an increase in police harassment of healthcare workers is hindering their ability to support some of the most vulnerable people in the Commonwealth. The project’s goal is to create a network of lawyers to provide on-call legal advice and if needed criminal defense representation, ensuring the healthcare workers can continue their work.

LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE
The Legislative Committee is continuing to workshop a legislative approach to mitigate the problem of racial profiling in the Commonwealth. Some states and municipalities have made inroads on this problem, and we have been studying their approaches. The two most prevalent strategies we have seen are converting suspect driving infractions into secondary offenses, for which police may not conduct car stops and utilized data collection to identify and address patterns of profiling. Once problematic officers or departments are identified, they are approached with the data which inspires voluntary change. The approach we have found most attractive is to create a legislative response to the Wrenn decision (which adopted the authorization approach to traffic stops). This strategy lets police stop whomever they want for civil driving infractions. However, if any evidence of a criminal offense is discovered during the stop, it is inadmissible. Thus, police could stop whomever they want but, if they lack reasonable suspicion of a crime before the stop, they forfeit the right to use what they discover during the stop as evidence in a criminal prosecution. There can be limits to this approach (i.e., evidence of a criminal driving offense such as OUI) but at its heart, it seeks to stop racial profiling by eliminating the incentive to profile.

They have also been working on amending the procedures for violation proceedings in Massachusetts to permit some sort of capped admission similar to a defendant capped plea in district court. Members of the committee met recently with the new commissioner of probation to discuss this proposal and other probation related matters.

BOARD UPDATES

NEW AND DEPARTING MEMBERS

In February we held elections for new board members and are thrilled to welcome aboard:

Darren Griffis
Ryan Sullivan
Asaf Sarno
Devon Hincapie
Reyna Ramirez
Melanie Roberts
Janet Glenn

A huge thank you to our recently departed board members for their service over many years.

Cristina Rodriguez
Howard Cooper
Brian Murphy
Luke Ryan

As we move forward, I am confident that our collective efforts will continue to drive our organization. Your dedication and hard work are the cornerstone of our achievements, and I am deeply grateful for your unwavering commitment to our work and our clients.

Thank you for being an integral part of our special community. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, concerns or ideas.

Shira Diner
president@macdl.org